An interactive gathering of educators, supervisors and lay leaders featuring Mark S. Young
As many Jewish youth professionals navigate the challenge of returning to in-person experiences and we reach two years since COVID-19 descended on our workplaces, we are presented with an opportunity.
- How can we use this transition to re-imagine the workplace experiences of our Jewish youth professionals to one that best suits the passions and needs of our talent?
- How might we focus our efforts investing in our talent and optimizing the employer-employee relationship so our organizations can truly thrive?
Join us to help us address these questions individually, as teams of Jewish educational professionals and lay leaders, and as a collective.
- Aimed at: Jewish educational professionals, youth professionals and their supervisors, clergy and lay leaders. Individuals or teams of three or more. We hope to impact the Jewish educational landscape and invite everyone who is involved in teen Jewish education to attend.
- Reimagine is hosted by Jewish LearningWorks and JTEEN.
Event Details
- Date: Thursday, March 3, 2022
- Time: 11:00 am – 2:00 pm Pacific / 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm Eastern
- Location: Virtual program. Zoom link provided upon registration.
Program Schedule
- 11:00 am Pacific / 2:00 pm Eastern: Opening, framing and connecting.
- 11:30 am Pacific / 2:30 pm Eastern: Keynote by Mark S. Young.
- 12:30 pm Pacific / 3:30 pm Eastern: We are thrilled to feature talented presenters who will share with us on the following topics. You will be able to select one of these workshops.
Building Your Bench: Does Your Organization Have the Value Proposition for the Future of Our Workforce? By Alena Akselrod, Senior Program Director at Leading Edge
A deep bench matters now more than ever. In today’s world, work plays a significantly different role than in the past. It is no longer just a paycheck, but instead it is a melting pot of mission alignment, psychological safety, communication and so much more. Your workplace culture matters more today than it did even 2 years ago. Join us as we unpack the learnings from the Leading Edge Employee Experience Survey—the largest survey of Jewish nonprofit professionals—and share how this information impacts the youth professional landscape.
More About Alena Akselrod
Alena Akselrod is the Senior Program Director at Leading Edge, supporting and enhancing the Jewish nonprofit field’s approach to leadership, talent, and workplace culture. Alena’s portfolio at Leading Edge includes the annual Employee Experience Survey, the CEO Survey, and other parts of Leading Places to Work. Alena grew up in Brooklyn after emigrating from the Former Soviet Union in the mid-90s. Her passion for working with youth propelled her into working with Russian-speaking Jewish (RSJ) immigrant families at a community center in South Brooklyn. Before leaving the agency, her role included a robust marketing, community organizing, organizational change management, and culture change portfolio, but her true love will always be facilitating identity and leadership programs, as well as creating new entry points into Jewish life for the RSJ community. Alena holds an M.B.A. in Nonprofit Management and an M.A. in Jewish Professional Leadership from Brandeis University. She is an MBTI certified practitioner, a proud Wexner Graduate Fellow & Davidson Scholar, and a JCCA Merrin Teen Professional Fellow.
Promoting and Promotions: Navigating Your Career Path. By Dr. Erik Ludwig, Director of Zelikow School of Non-Profit Management at HUC Los Angeles
This seminar will provide practical insight for youth professionals seeking to advocate for their promotion and support supervisors in developing practices for recognizing and promoting talent. We’ll examine a few stories from the field that amplify what it means to be promotion-ready, how to engage the conversation, how and why supervisors should be advocates for promoting, and provide practical advice in Q&A.
More About Erik Ludwig
Erik Ludwig, PhD is Director of the Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. His primary expertise is in the areas of leading organizational change and strategic philanthropy. His academic research interests include race in education, caring teacher-student relationships, and the effect of school structure on academic achievement. He believes that radical empathy can provide nonprofit institutions with a unique opportunity to understand how organizational structures may operate as barriers to achieving their mission and vision.
Build Around the Talent: A Bless Our Workforce Backstage Pass. By Mark S. Young, Vice President of Talent Strategy at JCC Association of North America
Join Mark for a breakout workshop building on his keynote, focusing on one of the book’s blessings, Build Around the Talent. We will discuss concrete strategies both to hire for the person (not hire for the job) and build roles and responsibilities around a professional’s unique strengths and talents (as opposed to hiring and managing an individual to “fit” the job) which will enable both the professional and the organization thrive. Mark will also address your specific questions and reflections from the keynote as part of a more intimate interactive dialogue and discussion. Looking forward to you joining us!
More About Mark S. Young
Mark S. Young is passionate about strengthening the experience and opportunities for the professionals who help make thriving Jewish communities a reality. Mark writes frequently on how to best invest in Jewish professional talent, including his $54,000 Strategy series on ejewishphilanthropy.com, his ELI TALK: Mah Tovu and now his 1st published book: Bless Our Workforce. Mark is the Vice President of Talent Strategy and the inaugural director of JResponse at JCC Association of North America. JResponse, a signature JCC Association talent initiative, trains and deploys its greatest asset, JCC professionals, to respond to crises and disasters.
The Power of Coaching: Using Coaching Skills to Maximize Your Potential. By Micol Zimmerman Burkeman, Recruitment and Leadership Development Associate at HUC.
Coaching has grown in popularity over the last decade in both the corporate and nonprofit fields. A creative and thought-provoking self-development process, coaching offers an opportunity to articulate goals and vision, raise awareness around one’s beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, and behaviors, help effectively navigate a new or challenging situation, get unstuck in an area of work or life, and to increase one’s impact and maximize one’s potential. Join Micol Zimmerman Burkeman, educator and coach, as she shares coaching tools and questions you can use to create self-awareness and alignment, live and lead with purpose, and become more effective in work and in life.
More About Micol Zimmerman Burkeman
Micol Zimmerman Burkeman (she/her), MAJE, ACC, is the Recruitment and Leadership Development Associate and Director of the Teaching Impact Fellowship at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. In this role, she works to elevate the Jewish professional field and develop the next generation of inspiring Jewish leaders. A seasoned experiential Jewish educator, Micol has worked to reimagine Jewish education and engagement for the last two decades. As a consultant, coach, and professional development facilitator, she works with educators, clergy, and Jewish communal professionals to help them increase their impact and maximize their potential. Micol is a trained and ICF credentialed executive coach and certified Immunity to Change™ Facilitator. She is an alum of the Generation Now Fellowship through The Jewish Education Project, and a current fellow in the Educational Leadership Program through the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership. Micol received her M.A. in Jewish Education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles and her B.A. in Communication at the University of Southern California. She lives in Natick, MA with her husband Rabbi Danny Burkeman and their two children, Gabriella and Benjamin.
Valuing our Impact: Inspiration from our Tradition (and others). By Rabbi Dena Shaffer, Director of Learning and Engagement at Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.
In this interactive and mildly provocative session we’ll explore how Jewish sources (traditional and contemporary) diversely value the field of youth engagement and education. We’ll also examine ways in which other faith-based organizations have sought to elevate the role of youth professionals and what we might learn from their successes and failures.
More About Rabbi Dena Shaffer:
Rabbi Dena Shaffer currently serves as the Director of Learning and Engagement for the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.
Before she joined the Funder Collaborative Team, Rabbi Dena was the Executive Director at 4Front, Baltimore’s Teen Initiative. Rabbi Dena served the Reform Jewish community as Associate Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford, Connecticut for five years,, where she played a leadership role innovating, implementing, and supervising youth engagement initiatives. In addition to her Rabbinic Ordination, she holds a Certificate in Jewish Education for Adolescents and Emerging Adults through the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and has expertise in adolescent development, experiential education, relationship building, and community structural change. Rabbi Dena also holds a black belt in Taekwondo and when she’s not kicking butt she can usually be found cuddling with her pup, Darby.
- 1:30 pm Pacific / 4:30 pm Eastern: Closing.
Registration
You may participate as an individual, but we highly encourage organizational teams to attend; youth professionals, clergy, educators, executive directors, and lay leaders.
Cost: $36 for organizational teams. The cost to attend is the same for one person or for more.
All trainings at Jewish LearningWorks are subsidized by our generous donors. To arrange a cost adjustment, please email deb@jewishlearning.works
Questions
For more information or any questions you may have, please contact Debra Sagan Massey, Senior Educator at deb@jewishlearning.works.
About Mark S. Young, Keynote Speaker
Mark S. Young is passionate about strengthening the experience and opportunities for the professionals who help make thriving Jewish communities a reality. Mark writes frequently on how to best invest in Jewish professional talent, including his $54,000 Strategy series on ejewishphilanthropy.com, his ELI TALK: Mah Tovu and now his 1st published book: Bless Our Workforce.
Mark is the Vice President of Talent Strategy and the inaugural director of JResponse at JCC Association of North America. JResponse, a signature JCC Association talent initiative, trains and deploys its greatest asset, JCC professionals, to respond to crises and disaster.
Mark previously served the Jewish Theological Seminary for 8 1/2 years, most recently as its Managing Director of its Leadership Commons at the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, and previously as the school’s Director of Alumni Engagement and Program Coordinator for its Experiential Learning Initiative. Prior to joining JTS, Mark served in Human Resources, Staff Training, and Programming Roles for Episcopal Social Services of New York, the 92nd Street Y, and Camp Wise of the Mandel JCC of Cleveland, Ohio.
Mark holds a BS in Psychology and Economics from McGill University, as well as an MPA in Nonprofit Management and an MA in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University. Mark has served as a board officer of JPRO Network and a past board chair of Advancing Jewish Professionals of NYC (now JPRO New York), and is a frequent presenter at conferences and events for Jewish Community Professionals.
Mark lives in Hartsdale, NY with his wife, Rabbi Mara Young, two children, Noah, and Asher, and rescue dog Lucky.
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